James Britnell

Hi brucek, Another thing you could try is to disable SkyMaxx Pro whilst you are using the JAR A320. In the MENU BAR select Plugins From the Drop Down Menu select Plugins Admin Select Enable/Disable Here you see a list of all the PLUGINS installed in X-plane 10 Look for the plugin SilverLinning and uncheck the box to the right. This will disable SkyMaxx Pro and you will revert to default clouds.

Hi Everyone, I've posted a Topic in the Tips and Tricks Forum called Views, Buttons and Keys which I hope people will find helpful.

Hi Tony Thanks very much for your reply.

Hi Everyone, I'm trying to get an overlay image into WED 1.4 and I keep getting a blank white image. I have used the snipping tool in windows to cut an image from Google Earth and have tried saving it as a jpg, a png and a gif file but the result is the same. I've used this technique before with good results but for the life of me I can't figure out why it isn't working. I am just wanting to use the image to trace around some awkward taxiway areas. Thanks very much for any help.

Hi there, according to a post by danklaue on X-plane.org, The dataref for the water rudder is sim/flightmodel2/misc/custom_slider_ratio[21] You can access that dataref via a keyboard or joystick button assigned to the following command: sim/operation/slider_22 Hope this helps.

Thanks again for the indepth explanation Ben. It saves a lot of spiff balling from people like me. Cheers!

Well there's you answer Sesquahtoo, straight from the horses mouth, so to speak. Thanks very much for the information Ben.

Ok, a few suggestions about what might be triggering the re-activation. When you upgrade SkyMaxxPro it will require re-Activation. If you happen to delete you Preferences folder, which contains you licensing information, you will need to re-activate the product. If you shift your X-plane 10 folder to another machine.. possibly even another location on the same machine, you will need to re-activate the product. Although X-plane "out of the box" will allow you to shift the X-plane folder pretty much with impunity, the addons are a very different matter. I would imagine this is a genuine "request" to re-activate the addon, but if you are still uneasy about it perhaps send an email to Cameron at X-aviation and I'm sure he can allay any concerns you have.

Hi, this sounds like the standard X-aviation product activation box to me, but it is curious that you haven't seen this before. A product activation box appears the first time X-plane 10 is started with a new addon from X-aviation installed, eg. SkyMaxPro, LES Saab 340a etc. You didn't see this box when you first installed the product?

Hi Bruce, Yes the knobs to the various controls can be awkward and a bit erratic to control at times. The direction to "CLICK and DRAG" the dials will be different depending on your view angle, and your zoom level in the cockpit. Generally, I have found the more you zoom in, the slower the dials will change. Keeping the knobs centered in your field of view makes things a little easier. Do you use MOUSE VIEW in the Cockpit? if so, you will find that even small subtle changes in your view direction can make a big difference to the ease of manipulating the knobs. It is certainly a feature of X-plane that can be rather trying, particularly if you happen to be in a busier phase of flight. Carenado have released some aircraft to Version 3 that include Scroll Wheel support for manipulating the knobs and from the limited experience I have had with them so far it seems to work very well. If you happen to have some Carenado aircraft for X-plane it would be very worthwhile for you to look into it. Regarding cloud shadows, I understand that yes, X-plane 10.31 has cloud shadows. If you have Skymaxx Pro installed it will override the cloud rendering in X-plane. Skymaxx Pro 2.1 supports cloud shadows but previous versions do not. Since you are not seeing cloud shadows, perhaps you have an earlier version installed? If so, there is a free upgrade to 2.1 available. You can also try disabling Skymaxx Pro thus handing the rendering responsibilities back to X-plane itself. Hope this helps.

Hi John, If I'm reading this correctly you are going into the UPDATES AND PATCHES section? Try this, log into your account and go MY PRODUCTS. Use the link under CLICK TO DOWNLOAD. In other words, download the whole product again. As for determining version number, go to the PRODUCTS page and a version number will be shown there. Hope this helps.

Hi, CTRL E is the command in Flight Simulator to get the Aircraft to an engine(s) running state. As far as I am aware, no such command exists in X-plane, only the " Start each flight with engines running" option which I presume you have found and disabled. The CTRL 1 command, found under SETTINGS / JOYSTICK and EQUIPMENT / KEYS, is called STARTERS / ENGAGE_STARTER_1. This command only engages engine #1s starter motor. Make sure that the aircraft Battery is ON and the fuel mixture is set to RICH. It may help to advance the throttle a little. Engage the Starter motor ( CTRL 1 ) and hold the keys down until the engine fires. It may take a few seconds for the engine to start.

Hi there, the keys for starting engines are CTRL 1 for engine number 1, CTRL 2 for engine number 2 etc....

Just to cover the bases, You have turned on Aviation Traffic under the display settings menu and have it set to a reasonable amount and you can see other traffic moving around. You have your avionics / radios turned on and you have opened the ATC window and contacted Ground / whomever. You can hear the voice of ATC and " your " voice. You're not operating out of Southeast of Nowhere Regional where the daily traffic movements are next to non-existent. As far as I'm aware ATC functions exactly as it does in FSX, which I believe, you are completely familiar with. There is dialog between ATC and other aircraft in the ATC window, but you just can't hear them?

Well.... I've really tried.. honest. I purchased prepar3dv2 when it was first available. As a long time FS user, I have grown accustomed to "treading carefully". When I first started using it, I couldn't complete a flight between Anchorage and Fairbanks without an OOM. I'd make it about 60nm out of Anchorage in the Carenado A36 and BAM... that was that. Tried numerous times, couldn't make it work. After updating to V2.2 I completed the flight no problems. Loaded up Just Flights 727, flew from KJFK to KPORD... no problems. Purchased Flightbeams KDEN and KIAD. Flew the route, Airline and General Aviation AI set at 50% Settings-Scenery all the way to the right, even called up ATC, got vectored onto final, opened another window to watch the landing, landed, taxied to the gate, used the ACE tool to reconfigure the aircraft, called up ATC for departure for clearance, taxied, opened another window again so I could watch the departure and flew back to KDEN where I again watched the landing in another window....... did my turnaround just like at KIAD, taxied back to the active using ATC, took-off and flew back to KIAD. Contacted KIAD Tower for landing clearance and......... hey, that looks like my desktop...... But I think I had to try pretty hard to achieve that. :lol:

Thanks for the compliment Strider1.

Hi Demious Pan View and Pan reset Under SETTINGS / JOYSTICK and EQUIPMENT / BUTTONS BASIC In the second column you will see the command VIEW: 3-D COCKPIT COMMAND-LOOK. This command sets the view to the "Virtual Cockpit" I find the sequence of assigning buttons in X-plane a little Counter-intuitive so I will briefly explain. First press the button on the controller, then select the command you wish to assign the button to. Note that the majority of the commands described below will not work in the "default" 2-D view, but will work well in most others. Here in the far right column of commands you will find GENERAL COMMAND: TILT UP, GENERAL COMMAND: TILT DOWN, GENERAL COMMAND: PAN LEFT and GENERAL COMMAND PAN RIGHT. This commands will rotate your view in the direction described . Assign these commands to your hat switch to pan your view. If you find this pans your view a little too slowly, there is an additional set of commands bearing the same names but with the addition of FAST. This next part is a little clumsy.... There is no "Pan View reset" command , However in the second column you will see the command VIEW: FWD WITH PANEL. This will snap your view back to center looking forward. Unfortunately, this command will take you out of the Virtual cockpit and into the 2D cockpit, so from there you need to go back to the virtual cockpit. I have buttons assigned to both commands so it's not too bad. Perhaps, somebody out there has a slicker way of doing this. Generally speaking I find MOUSE View much better for panning around the cockpit. Ensure you are in the "Virtual Cockpit". Double Click the RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON, this will activate the mouse view, a single RIGHT CLICK will deactivate it. Move the mouse to pan around, the SCROLL WHEEL will zoom your view. Controls can be manipulated whilst in MOUSE VIEW but can be awkward. I move into and out of MOUSE VIEW constantly. Incidentally, the SCROLL WHEEL will zoom in any view including the default 2-D. Moving Panel up, Down, Left, Right, Backwards, Forwards Under SETTINGS / JOYSTICK and EQUIPMENT / BUTTONS BASIC again in the far right column you will see the commands GENERAL COMMAND LEFT, GENERAL COMMAND RIGHT etc.. These commands will move your " EYEPOINT" in FSX parlance, in the direction described. There is also the FAST variant of these commands. ( I use these commands to "walk around the aircraft, doing preflight " ) Again, no reset option per see, use the clumsy workaround. Zooming your view under SETTINGS / JOYSTICK and EQUIPMENT / BUTTONS BASIC Far Right Column of commands, GENERAL COMMAND: ZOOM IN and GENERAL COMMAND: ZOOM OUT. These commands zoom your view both inside and outside of the cockpit. Axis for Rudder - covered in post #4 Saitek Panels - Sorry, I don't have these so can't help with this Range numbers of the axis controls Try SETTINGS / JOYSTICK and EQUIPMENT / NULLZONE Second Windows - Covered in Post #5 Cycle thru Views As far as I'm aware, there is no command for this. For exterior view, I generally used the VIEW: CIRCLE command, SETTINGS / JOYSTICK and EQUIPMENT / BUTTONS BASIC. or as previously pointed out use the Shift 4 combination. This will give you and exterior view of your aircraft and surroundings. The same commands for shifting your view in the cockpit can be used here as well. Using the GENERAL COMMAND; BACKWARD, for example, you can shift your eye point back as far as you like, giving you a great view of your surroundings. This view is "Tied" to your aircraft. To "untie" to view, press the C key ( VIEW: FREE CAMERA ) and you can move you view.... well, freely. Of course, to get back into the cockpit, use VIEW: 3-D COCKPIT COMMAND-LOOK Hope this helps

Hi, You'll need to go into the Settings menu, then Joystick and Equipment. You should see all of your joystick axes shown. Axes that have been assigned have a green bar whilst those unassigned have a red bar. Moving your throttles will show which axis they correspond to. Clicking on the box to the left of the Axis bar will open a dropdown menu which can be used to assign a option for that axis. The Fifth option down is Throttle. Further down you will see options for Throttle 1, Throttle 2, Throttle 3 and finally, Throttle 4. Unfortunately, I don't believe there is a way to assign a single axis to multiple Throttles, In other words, you can't assign Throttle 1 and 2 to one lever, and Throttle 3 and 4 to the other. If you assign one lever to Throttle, it will control all of the engines simultaneously. Perhaps best to ensure the other Lever is assigned to None.

As I understand it, the plugins should be fine. I have never used VATSIM so I'm not familiar with it at all. Does VATSIM use a Plugin? If so, it might be worthwhile trying to disable it. Failing that, a universal cure-all for everything that ails you in X-plane seems to be to delete the contents of the X-Plane / Output / preferences folder. This will delete yor Joystick Calibration, Key and Button Assignments, Rendering Settings and any Licensing information you may have....... so...... Before you delete the file, I would suggest moving the whole preferences folder out of the whole X-plane directory and put it, say, on the desktop. I don't think it matters where as long as X-plane can't find it! This will cause X-plane to generate a new Preferences folder once you start X-plane. This SHOULD put you back to a default X-plane start-up. You should be on the runway at KSEA with, hopefully, AI aircraft in your vicinity. Note, Shift 4 will put you in CIRCLE VIEW mode, double click the right mouse button and move the mouse to pan around if need be. If this doesn't produce the desired effect, I think it would be prudent to delete the new preferences folder and replace the old one back to it's righful place. If it does fix the AI issue, you may need to decide whether to redo all of your settings, licensing etc.... or whether to forget about AI aircraft. Regarding the installer. When X-plane 10 first came out there was an issue with the installer that came on the disks. It was recommended to download a new installer from Laminar and use that. I don't know whether that situation has been rectified or which installer you are using so I thought I'd mention it just in case. Perhaps the next step, presuming the previous ones have failed to alleviate the issue, would be to try updating X-plane using the aforementioned installer. Quite which files the installer checks and which it doesn't I am not entirely sure. I understand the Plugins should be safe, I seem to recall reading that any files in the CUSTOM SCENERY folder are safe. I am not sure about the preferences folder. I would imagine any art files etc. you may have changed would be restored to "default". I run a fairy vanilla copy of X-plane so you probably know more about that than I do. The Installer will prompt you before it overwrites any files, but I guess other issues may arise overwriting some, but not other files. I don't know. Well, after taking the time to read all this I hope you gain some benefit from it. Good Luck

I'll presume you are running X-plane 10.25. Sounds like something has gone awry somewhere. Perhaps you could try running the installer and "updating X-plane". Any missing / damaged files should be replaced.

Hi, just to be sure I'm on the same page.... You're selecting the AIRCRAFT menu, Then AIRCRAFT & SITUATIONS, then selecting the OTHER AIRCRAFT tab. Sounds like you're in the right place. The top box is labelled NUMBER of AIRCRAFT. The 1st aircraft represents the players aircaft so using the arrows above the box increase the number of aircraft to 02. After doing this you are not seeing a box appear below?

Hi Ryan, You can find the Flashlight command under the Buttons.Adv menu - view/ sub menu and is called flashlight_wht. If you would like to assign a Key to this command, go into the Keys menu and hit the "Add New Key Assignment" button. Then select the view submenu above, then select the flashlight_wht command. You should see the new Keyboard assignment in the box at the left. Of course, you then need to assign the desired key to the command. Hope this helps.